Ethical Leadership
Ethical Leadership
Ethical Leadership
LEADERSHIP
The first empirical works on the subject came from research carried out by
Linda K. Trevio . Her work brought to light the ethical characteristics of
leaders and the meaning of an ethical culture. This latter concept is closely
related to leadership, because it represents values, norms, beliefs, traditions,
and common assumptions that guide ethical behaviour.
According to Trevio, ethical leadership is vital to the creation of an ethical culture
at work. An ethical leader is a leader who cares who listens to what employees
have to say, and who has their best interests in mind.
In addition, an ethical leader communicates messages concerning ethics and
values, not only during major publicized events but also on a daily basis, through
conduct and decisions that reflect a particular ethics.
In making decisions, ethical leaders always asks themselves what is best for
each employee, for the group, or for the organization as a whole, depending
on the situation.
The ethical leader helps others to become responsible and to define success,
not merely in terms of results but also in terms of the way in which one goes
about obtaining these results .
James Rest, who proposes a process based on four steps:
identification of the moral nature of the issue,
the establishment of moral intentions,
the adoption of a moral judgment,
and engagement in a moral action.
Most decision-making processes are part of Rests conception .
As concerns the number of years and age, some studies show that those who
are older and more experienced have better ethical judgment.
Ethic Of Critique
The ethic of critique aims to discover whether one group is dominating another
and to show how this situation came about so that the injustice can be corrected.
The intention of those acting according to an ethic of critique is to ensure that
organizational and social arrangements are more in line with the human
rights of all citizens.
Their goal is also to allow persons concerned by these arrangements to
express their opinion and contribute their point of view
The ethic of critique allows every stakeholder to offer whatever suggestions,
recommendations, or critiques seem necessary to improve an organization or
society.
Ethic of Justice
The workplace engages both perspectives on justice: individual choices are
made on the basis of a certain consciousness of community, while the
choices of the organization are the sum of individual choices made every day
at work.
An ethic of justice requires the institution to serve both the common good
and individual rights. A balance between the two is the goal.
The goals of an ethic of justice, as advanced by Starratt, is to provoke
exchange, to engage people in debate, to demonstrate transparency in
management, and to foster consultation and understanding.
A person seeking to foster an ethic of justice wishes to see ethical training
activities incorporated into the workplace to foster discussion about
individual and collective choices and to sharpen the sensibilities of all.
This could mean programs on conflict resolution, value clarification, problem
solving, multicultural understanding, and so on.
The weakness of the ethic of justice has to do with the effort required on the
part of the community to manage its affairs while at the same time taking
both the common good and individual rights into account.
For some, it is difficult to determine the points of conflict. What is just for one
person or group can be unjust for another person or group
Ethic of Care
The ethic of care relates to the fundamental requirements of interpersonal
relations.
Those who practice an ethic of care consider human relations to be of major
importance to the proper functioning of organizations.
ETHICAL DILEMMAS
Ethical dilemmas occur when important values come into conflict, and the
decision maker (the leader, in many cases) must make a choice between
these values. Since both values are important, success and honesty, for
example, priorities must be assigned to values and one takes precedence
over the other. To the extent possible, a careful balance must be preserved to
maximize both values in order to avoid unethical decision making
Kidder (2005) offers two classifications of ethical dilemmas.
In the first type of dilemma, a right versus wrong dilemma, ethical issues
emerge when a core moral value has been violated or ignored. When
honesty is an important value to a person, and another person is found to be
acting dishonestly, it is generally acknowledged that the action was unethical.
In this case, ethics is simply the obvious difference between what is right and
what is wrong.
In the second type of dilemma, a right versus right dilemma, however, ethical
issues emerge when two core values come into conflict with each other.
When one important value raises powerful moral arguments for one course of
action, while another value raises equally powerful arguments for an opposite
course, we must make a choice since we cant do both. In such cases, ethics
is a matter of right versus right.
For leaders to facilitate solutions to ethical dilemmas in the workplace,
written guidelines in the form of a code of conduct are useful.
According to Driscoll and Hoffman (2000), a code of conduct is intended to
be a guide and reference for users in support of day-to-day decision making.
It is meant to clarify an organization's mission, values and principles and to
link them with standards of professional conduct.
Consider the consequences to others of your decisions, and look for ways to
minimize harm.
Treat everyone with fairness, honesty, and respect all the time.
Treat other organizations in the same way you treat other people with
fairness, honesty, and respect.
Communicate.
Work to become increasingly culturally and interpersonally competent.
Take cultural sensitivity seriously.
Work to be inclusive.
Take your leadership responsibility seriously, and be accountable for fulfilling
it.
Constantly strive to increase your competence.
Never stop reexamining your ethics and your leadership.